I’ve been wondering how to word this for some time now. I’m still not sure. I’m likely in the minority. Perhaps my mother in law said it best, in regards to Disney’s Halloween setup. “I’m not sure what I was expecting, but I expected more.” When I think Disneyland, it brings to mind all the little touches, the little nuances that set the park apart from more standard parks. All the lights work on the rides, the place is CLEAN, there is no signs of being run down, ever effort is made to make every little thing as perfect as can be. At first glance, it would appear this had carried over to the Halloween celebration. The main gate decked out.
Main street lined with banners and pumpkins.
The center hub all planted in fall colors.
Fantastic carvings denoting the different ‘lands’.
….and then…it just…stops.
Gone are the halloween flavors.
Sure, there are small sections where things are done up. Namely the Haunted Mansion, though technically this is ‘christmas’ decor.
Then, the superb job in 2 very specific sections of Frontier land. The Dia de Los Muertos tribute:
And the dedicated Halloween Carnival.
Though I’m still not sure what a petting zoo has to do with Halloween…
…it was the place to have the most Halloween centric fun.
And then…it’s all just gone again… What was I expecting, what would I change? It’s funny I was stopped by a reporter and asked those very things. I’m still not sure, but I harken back to the local amusement park here does that could be translated easily to Disney. A tower of disney pumpkins?
Photo ops?
Simple Ghosts/scarecrows to fill in those blank spaces of grass?
Pumpkins up in the trees and bushes?
I don’t know, just something felt missing. Disney puts a lot of effort into their “Mickey’s halloween party”, to be sure. But this feels like a sleezy money grab more than anything else after watching the park transformation for this party. The guests with regular tickets get ushered out of the park 3 hours prior to what would be a normal closing time. The guests with the special tickets get allowed in early, but still only get what amounts to a half day at most in the park. Then the day following this party was the only time I’ve seen Disney anything close to resembling dirty as they clearly hadn’t had time to scrape up all the candy from the trick or treat the night before. To top it off. All that wonderful decor on mainstreet…just disappears at night thanks to missing and/or inadequate lighting. What’s the point of carving all those pumpkins if they’re not going to be lit well enough to see?
